The etymology of the word »generic« can be derived from the French word
»générique«. In the context of domains, it means »general«.
Domains of this type are commonly available and are not restricted to certain
user groups. As opposed to
country code domains,
they can be registered by anybody worldwide, with no respect to his or her residence.

The open allocation regulations and the global accessibility for
registration make these domains very attractive. This results in certain disadvantages,
however, since the most interesting domain names are already taken
for the »classical« generic top level domains
.com,
.net and
.org.

Fortunately, since the liberalization of the domain market,
new generic top level domains have been introduced
where the registration of the desired domain name possible in many cases.
Meanwhile the domain endings
.biz,
.info and
.name are
established and have become an important part of the internet.

The name of this top level domain
is based on the colloquial acronym for business. The domain is intended for
business people. However, there is no verification concerning the purpose of the
domain usage when registering .biz domains.